Magdalene Taylor foresees the future of dating, with much less swiping. In a first-person article for Slate, the culture writer talks about attending an in-person dating event and how it exceeded her expectations. Has she found her dream partner? Not completely, but that’s okay. Her story provides a larger context for this work. The once wildly popular dating apps seem to be on the decline, and it’s not hard to find articles documenting that trend. As a result, major companies like Tinder, Bumble, and Match are increasingly sponsoring events where humans actually meet other humans in person. Taylor attended a Tinder event where “the almost universal feeling, whether you use the app or not, was that people are fed up with the digitization of their love lives.”
As for Taylor, he felt Mixer had a “deep influence” on him. She was impressed by the participants who not only participated, but took the courage to introduce themselves to others. “I think in that moment we seemed real to each other in a way that would be nearly impossible to recreate online.”Dating can be messy, but it teaches us not only about others, but about ourselves. Taylor added. “Whether we’re looking for love, friendship, or something else, it’s going to take some effort before this kind of thing feels normal for all of us again,” she said. I am writing. “Tinder may be partly to blame for getting us into this position in the first place, but if you want an app to be the solution, so be it.” Read the full essay. (Or read our other articles about online dating.)
